Majority of Top 28 US Metro Markets Show Greater Online Job Availability in October

Monster Local Employment Index Highlights:

* Twenty-two of 28 monitored markets register increased online recruitment activity in October

* Demand for sales and related occupations rises or holds steady in 26 markets as pre-holiday hiring season arrives

* Cleveland metro area demonstrates strongest monthly rate of increase amid sharply higher demand for retail sales and marketing professionals

* Online opportunities in New York climb, fueled by greater demand for qualified IT workers

* Houston registers accelerating year-over-year growth for the fourth consecutive month

* One market - Phoenix - sees a minor dip in online recruitment activity, edging down for the second straight month as local housing market further cools

Online recruitment activity increased in 22 of the top 28 U.S. metro markets in October amid heightened demand for temporary workers and generally tighter labor market conditions, according to the latest findings of the Monster Local Employment Index.

Online job availability for sales and related occupations rose or held steady in 26 of the 28 markets, signaling the start of the pre-holiday hiring season. During October, Cleveland posted the largest month-to-month increase in online job availability, surging five points on sharply higher demand for sales and creative professionals as retailers, marketers and advertising firms stepped up their recruitment efforts in preparation for the holiday shopping season. Meanwhile, Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Louis were also among the top performers on a year-on-year basis, suggesting renewed momentum in parts of the Midwest.

The Monster Local Employment Index findings for October show stepped-up recruitment activity across most major U.S. cities, largely driven by the start of the pre-holiday hiring season when employers typically boost hiring efforts to meet their heightened staffing needs, said Steve Pogorzelski, Group President, International at Monster Worldwide. However, the broad increase in demand for workers in major cities during October is also partly due to an increasingly tight labor market, as reflected by a national unemployment rate that is now at a five-year low of 4.4 percent.

Online job opportunities in the New York City area jumped two points last month, driven by higher demand for computer and mathematical occupations and marking a slight acceleration in the market’s annual growth rate after a relatively tepid third quarter. Demand for qualified IT professionals continued to be strong across a number of sectors including finance and business/professional services. The Index for New York City also showed a greater number of online opportunities for researchers and other life, physical, and social scientists.

The Houston metro market also saw greater online job availability last month, adding three points and extending a four-month growth trend. A variety of white-collar occupations have seen higher demand driven by business expansion, while soaring online recruitment efforts for transportation; engineering; and construction and extraction occupations indicate labor and capacity constraints in the Houston area’s booming energy industry.

Phoenix was the only market tracked by the Index that registered a decline in online job availability in October, edging down one point for the second consecutive month. Although Phoenix had previously been the Index’s fastest growing metro market, the area’s regional economy has been experiencing the drag of a sharp slowdown in real estate and construction, which has contributed to slightly weaker overall demand for labor despite continued strength in healthcare, government and food services.

On a year-over-year basis, Houston remains the Index’s fastest growing major online recruitment market followed by Minneapolis, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis and Seattle. Los Angeles, Orlando, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. occupy the bottom spots, but still maintain below-average unemployment rates and healthy job growth. These lower-ranked markets have merely seen less improvement from already heightened levels of online job availability one year ago, when strong housing and construction sectors drove up overall demand for workers in their local economies.

According to the Index, protective service; food preparation and serving; and arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations have seen the strongest rate of growth in online demand over the last 12 months. These are followed by healthcare support and military related positions.

In contrast to the overall upward trend seen in most occupational categories across all 28 markets over the past 12 months, online job opportunities in architecture and engineering were flat over the year on the whole. While several markets in the Midwest and South have shown stepwise growth in demand, many key Northeastern and Western markets have registered lower online job availability for these kinds of positions. Not surprisingly, many of the weakest markets for this category, including Boston, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., are also among those that have been most affected by the slumping housing sector.